Sunday, February 24, 2008

"NASCAR Now" Sunday Morning Will Tell The Tale

This morning at 10AM Eastern Time ESPN2 will carry the one hour Sunday preview version of NASCAR Now. This will be the first glimpse for TV viewers of conditions at the track, and a hint of what will happen with the racing.

With the late night east coast TV work by the NASCAR on ESPN crew, it should be interesting to see what on-air personalities are on NASCAR Now today.

Ryan Burr continues to be the co-host from the ESPN Studios, with Nicole Manske traveling to the current races. Allen Bestwick, Brady Daugherty, Ray Evernham and Rusty Wallace are also featured on this program.

The show has plenty of reporters to choose from, and we know Marty Smith and Angelique Chengelis are both on-scene in California. There should be lots of interesting news coming out of the track with all these potential schedule changes continuing because of weather.

NASCAR Now has one hour to fill with only one race having taken place instead of two. It should be interesting to see how much Sprint Cup preview viewers get and how the network will approach setting-up the Nationwide race which does not have a firm on-air time and has not yet been officially assigned an ESPN network.

Update: ESPN has confirmed that ESPN2 will show the Nationwide Series race, tentatively scheduled for 9PM Eastern Time. This throws a wrench into the NHRA coverage that will be in-progress of the final rounds. Rain may play a role in both telecasts, stay tuned.

This page will serve to host your comments about the AM edition of NASCAR Now. To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

22 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Very disappointed that Ryan and NN only showed a glimpse of a tiny part of the track (lots of water) at the beginning and didn't pan across a large area or over the whole track to let us see the conditions.

Other than a graphic over that shot that said race day forecast of 57 degrees and showers, weather talk or an update on track conditions was nonexistent in the first half hour, other than cryptic "If we get racing" comments. And it is THE story.

Also disappointed that Nicole who is at the track and inside, (obviously weather is bad), has not interviewed someone (it's 7:30 you know some NASCAR officials are there already) or told us info from an interview about what someone is saying about current and upcoming track conditions. How much rain fell overnight? Is it still raining? They didn't say - I guess we are supposed to assume from Nicole (and Angelique) being inside.

When it's forecast to snow for a NFL game in Green Bay or it snowed the night before, they give me forecast details on Sportscenter and the pre-game shows. They shouldn't ignore it on a NASCAR broadcast. I shouldn't have to go to an Internet site to see the conditions in Fontana.

I guess they don't want people to know the weather's bad if they think some of them might not tune in. Silly on their part because they're not covering the "news" part of NASCAR when they don't cover the weather affecting it.

I want to hear from a NASCAR official about when the rainfall stops what their plans are immediately after the rain stops. Do they have to pump water off the track like they did Friday? Or do they just have to dry the track like normal and in the normal span of time (2 hours)?

Jamie Little or someone last night spoke to a Sunoco official talking about the jet fuel and gasoline used by the jet dryers and how much had been unexpectedly used already. Did they have to send for more?

If the rain stops, is there a chance that dryers will get out on the track and the start will be moved up since there are two races to run?

A 10-second shot of a small part of track and saying rain is in the forecast doesn't do it for me. There is plenty more for them to "say" and they're not saying it. Two-three minutes was all they needed instead of ignoring it.

Like I said, NFL news this time of morning on Sundays doesn't shy away from weather conditions, why should NASCAR?

BTW, showers are supposed to stop by 1 PM Pacific, not that they told me that.

Anon 10:49 (and first post also, I believe) you nailed it with your "list" of questions. My list, too and you thought of some I didn't. ;)

Too bad they didn't answer any of them.

I enjoyed the program, but the set (I think it's called?) in Bristol seems more "enclosed" than the set used before and during races. It was a little bit of an adjustment from last week when they used the pre-race set from Daytona on Sunday. I liked that more. More people, too.

I like Angelique Chengelis a lot and she always does a great job reporting the news.

I hate to say this. But it doesn't look like they will get any race in today. It has been raining all night and continues to rain. It will take 3+ hours to dry the track, and of course there will be weepers. NASCAR had to pump out water last time it rained and this time there is much more rain.

Monday looks clear for both races. IT will be intersting to see what NASCAR RaceDay does today. In the past they have went off the air early whenit continues to rain and they don't think they can get the race in. (Dover last spring)

As a side note, we could have a real interesting situation if there's much of a rain delay to the start of today's Cup race. What's going to happen if the Cup race starts to creep into the 9p.m. Eastern hour, when ESPN2 is supposed to go on the air with the Nationwide race? Will ESPN2 go on the air as planned, or will they hold off with alternate programming until the Cup race finishes?

Also, it should make for an interesting Victory Lane even if the race finishes on time....it'll be interesting how they'll interview the winning driver, if that winning driver is also racing in the Nationwide race. That driver will have to get ready for that race, not to mention be there for driver introductions.

The logistics and coordination between the networks should be something to watch today.

The first thing I noticed about today's NN is that Ryan Burr was the host. He was in the studio with Boris Said. I also noticed that in Nicole's first appearance in the program, Ryan introduced her as our "reporter Nicole Manske". Her entire role was as reporter. All pre-taped.

I would suggest for all that wonder why no NASCAR personel or drivers where there, IT'S RAINING!" I bet no one at ESPN would have been able to get them to come to the track at 6am for an interview when at least 12 of them will be driving 6-7 hours today.

Yesterday was a horrible day for many and they were tired. They have been there since Thursday. Maybe they have run out of clean clothes and food and jovial temper.

Last night Dr. Punch was talking about what a busy morning officials, crews, administration, ESPN personnel, drivers, etc. would be having. Can you imagine what your hotel room would look like Sunday morning if you've been there since Thursday? They have to pack everything up and check out by 10am. That means that when they leave, everything has to be out of the room. So why would I get up at 5, take a shower and drive to the track for an interview and then come back and get packed? I don't think so.

As far as I could tell. there was no one at the track this morning. Ryan even mentioned that Nicole's interview was taped Saturday.

There is probably a good reason why Nicole was not host today. The program would air too early and they could not get a panel of guests together for her or they have decided to let her act as reporter and work her way up slowly. Even on the first clip they played of her, she tripped on her words, but she only tripped once. That's good.

I don't think she's done a particulary good job as host and needs more practice. Kyle seemed a little irritated at 2 of her questions. She said something about him having "matured". Practically the first thing out of his mouth was "I don't think it has to do with being mature" or something like that. Then she said he had been compared by a driver to Jeff Gordon. Even before he answered, I thought to myself, why? He was so upset about being dumped by HMS and knew that Rick had asked Jeff's approval to sign up Jr. So he knew Jeff did not have his back.

Anyway, Kyle said something like, "whenever you are compared to someone like Tony Stewart, and XXand XX and XX , and Jeff you feel good. He refused to answer the question directly,instead added 5-6 other driver's names, but was smart enough not to dis Jeff.

Well, I've got all my snacks ready, my newspaper, my computer and hope we get to see a good race. My team won yesterday so I won't have to be changing channels!

"I would suggest for all that wonder why no NASCAR personel or drivers where there, IT'S RAINING!" I bet no one at ESPN would have been able to get them to come to the track at 6am for an interview when at least 12 of them will be driving 6-7 hours today. "

Nicole wasn't pre-taped in her first appearance by herself. She was in the Tech Center, she mentioned the weather outside not being good unless you are a duck. It wasn't from yesterday, neither was Angelique. Nicole's interview with a driver was pre-taped. I didn't notice any problems with Nicole's segments, she did fine to me.

Almost all tracks open at 6 or 7 AM on race weekends. If you think John Darby or someone from his crew was not there from 7-8 AM Pacific, rain or not, you are sadly mistaken.

I've even read an interview with someone who cooks for the NASCAR officials who tries to get there earlier than 6AM on race weekends to get the food going before they get there.

What, you think they're going to sleep in or stay at a hotel, especially when they have to gauge the current condition of the track or figure out the logistics of planning two races in one day?

Don't think so. Someone was there and should have been interviewed about plans for the day and the condition of the track.

There is probably a good reason why Nicole was not host today. The program would air too early and they could not get a panel of guests together for her or they have decided to let her act as reporter and work her way up slowly.

I missed NASCAR Now today (watching Tradin Paint now!) But Nicole was the NASCAR Now host last Sunday morning. She was really good, better than I thought she would be for sure! I didn't see anything wrong with her hosting skills at all, she was there with Brad and Rusty and Ray Evernham.

I thought she and Ryan were supposed to alternate hosting....if that's the case then maybe it was Ryan's weeks to host Sunday.

C'mon anon, it was meant to be funny. Hey, it's okay to disagree. You are not there. I'm not there. You don't know why no one was there. I was just giving my opinion. You gave yours. That's what it's all about.

Nicole has been the co-host from the tracks for this first stint of races. Burr will travel when the series hits Atlanta.

She is a co-host of this series, and has been since she was hired. Burr refers to her as "reporting" when she is on-site. Manske has also hosted the Saturday show from the ESPN Pit Center for the full hour.

I hope that clear up any issues about the NASCAR Now hosting situation. Thanks.

And after it actually stops raining I wonder how long it will take to dry the track. We were at Texas years ago and the Busch race started but 19 laps into it the rains came. We left the track thinking we would have 2 hours to kill til they restarted the race once it stopped raining. The rain stopped and they restarted in 90 minutes so we never got back to watch the race. But California is flat not banked like Texas so I wonder when they could get the race started tonight and whether they can actually get both races in.